Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray

Noemi Vidal is a teen soldier from Genesis, a former colony of Earth that is now fighting for independence. She loves Genesis and is more than willing to lay her own life on the line to help in the fight for independence — especially since she doesn’t really have anything to lose. As an orphan, she is not even worried about leaving anyone behind if she should die. The biggest problem, nevertheless, is that she has a very high likelihood of dying because the “mech” (robotic) armies have been overpowering the human armies of Genesis for decades. She knows there must be *some* way for Genesis to prevail, but she isn’t all too sure she will be around to see whether it can be done.

Abel is a mech who *should* be her enemy, but he’s technically programmed to follow her command. You’re probably thinking, “What?!? I don’t get it.” Well… When Abel was programmed, it never occurred to his creator that he might fall into “enemy” hands, so he didn’t include anything in Abel’s programming to specify that a non-Earth human should not be allowed control. Add that little “glitch” to the his extraordinary talents, and you have a most unusual mech. You see, most mechs only had one purpose — some were soldiers, some were mechanics, others were medics, and so on. Abel was a prototype mech who was programmed to do all of those jobs and more. He was even given DNA from his creator, practically making him a child rather than just a creation. Topping it all off is the fact that, after being left all alone on a spaceship for thirty years, his programming evolved enough that he seemed to develop feelings and a personality. A personality that makes him *resent* the fact that he needs to follow Noemi’s orders. (His sass kind of reminded me of Iko from The Lunar Chronicles!)

I don’t know how much more I can say without getting all “spoilery” on you, but I think it goes without saying that a human who has been taught to mistrust mechs and a mech who doesn’t want to serve a particular human make for a rather unlikely team. But Abel doesn’t really have a choice and Noemi doesn’t really have any other special advantages in the fight against Earth, so teaming up is the only logical conclusion.